Wllllf=?ton  WalV.er,    Ph.D, 


Inaugural  Address 


C«.       Three  Phases 

^^  ^fl  Of  Nei:  England  Congregational^ 

^  Development 


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OCT   12 


SRTFORD  SEMINARY  PUBLIOTION^O(SgALSt>^^^^' 


[NEW  SERIES! 


€8rcc  J^f,a^e^  of  i^citi  ^nglanD  Congregationar 
2DebeIopmcnt 


INAUGURAL  ADDRESS 


WILLISTON    WALKER.    Ph.D. 


WA..DO    PROFESSOR    OF    GERMANIC    AXO    XV 


ESTERN    CHURCH    HISTORV 

November  29,  1892 


fbartforO  Senunaig  press 

Hartford,  Co.w." 
1893 


HARTFORD  SEMINARY  PUBLICATIONS,  NO.  28 


[new  series] 


Zlytct  ^f^a^e^  of  0t\iy  O^nglanti  Congregational 
2Debelopmcnt 


INAUGURAL  ADDRESS 


m 


WILLISTON  'AVALKER,    Ph.D. 


WALDO    PROFESSOR    OF    GERMANIC    AND    WESTERN    CHURCH    HISTORY 


November  29,  1892 


IbarttorD  Semlnarij  ipress 

Hartford,  Conn. 
1893 


J 


THREE   PHASES   OF   NEW  ENGLAND  CONGRE- 
GATIONAL  DEVELOPMENT. 

INAUGURAL  ADDRESS  OF  WILLISTON  WALKER,  Ph.D., 

Waldo  Professor  of  Germanic  and  Western  Church  History, 

November  29,  1892. 


Three  hundred  years  ago  this  autumn,  in  the  month  of 
September,  the  first  modern  Congregational  church,  which  was 
to  be  marked  by  any  degree  of  permanence,  completed  its  organ- 
ization by  the  choice  of  the  officers  whom  its  membership  be- 
lieved to  be  designated  in  the  New  Testament.  The  first  re- 
statement of  Congregational  principles  on  English  soil  was 
indeed  earlier.  Robert  Browne  had  gathered  his  church  at 
Norwich  in  1580  or  158 1,  and  had  left  its  exiled  fragments  in 
quarrel  in  Holland  a  few  months  later.  Before  1592  he  had 
become  reconciled  to  the  English  ecclesiastical  Establishment, 
and  had  abandoned  the  advocacy  of  a  cause  for  which  he  had 
undergone  much  of  obloquy  and  persecution.  But  Browne's 
work  bore  fruit,  directly  or  indirectly,  and  by  1587  a  congrega- 
tion was  formed  at  London,  united  together  by  a  covenant,  and 
possessed  of  sufficient  self -recognition  to  issue  in  1589,  through 
its  two  leading  members,  a  statement  of  church  polity.  It  had 
even  performed  the  churchly  act  of  excommunication  ;  but  so 
closely  had  its  members  been  imprisoned,  that  it  was  not  till 
the  autumn  of  1592  that  a  lull  in  the  persecution  permitted  the 
much  buffetted  London  church  to  choose  a  pastor,  teacher, 
ruling-elders,  and  deacons.  A  few  months  later,  in  April  and 
May,  1593,  the  teacher,  John  Greenwood,  and  the  two  most 
prominent  members,  Henry  Barrowe  and  John  Penry,  sealed 
their  devotion  to  Congregational  principles  by  martyrdom. 
But  since  the  autumn  of  1592  the  succession  of  Congregational 
churches  has  continued  uninterrupted  to  the  present  day.  For 
three  centuries  Congregationalism  has  been  extending  in  ever 
widening  circles  of  influence  from  the  humble  beginnings  at 
London. 

The    anniversary    character    of    the    season    in    which    our 


gathering  to-night  takes  place  makes  any  apology  needless,  if 
apology  ever  were  fitting  on  the  platform  of  a  Congregational 
Theological  Seminary,  for  devoting  the  few  minutes  at  our  dis- 
posal to  a  glance  at  one  or  two  of  the  more  conspicuous  features 
of  the  long  story  of  suffering  and  achievement  which  links  us 
to  the  men  who  completed  their  conception  of  a  New  Testa- 
ment church  in  London  three  centuries  ago,  and  into  the 
spiritual  heritage  of  whose  work  we  have  entered ;  and,  since  a 
selection  from  the  multitudinous  themes  of  profitable  contem- 
plation which  that  history  presents  is  imperatively  necessary,  I 
shall  ask  your  attention  at  this  time  to  the  changing  emphasis 
which  has  been  put  by  our  Congregational  body,  during  the 
three  hundred  years  which  have  just  closed,  on  doctrine  and  on 
polity. 

If  we  follow  the  course  6i  a  river  like  our  own  Connecticut, 
we  are  impressed  by  the  fact  that,  while  the  mighty  stream 
pursues  the  same  general  direction,  it  seldom  flows  long  in 
the  same  straight  line.  Its  current  shifts  from  side  to  side, 
now  bending  in  the  one  direction,  now  in  the  other  ;  tearing 
away  its  banks  here  and  leaving  its  former  channel  there ;  yet, 
in  spite  of  all  these  vagrant  turnings,  aiming  at  the  same  ulti- 
mate goal  and  steadily  moving  onward,  as  if  by  an  irresistible 
impulse,  to  its  union  with  the  sea.  So  it  is  in  the  history  of  the 
Kingdom  of  God.  Under  the  guidance  of  the  divine  Spirit  the 
church  glides  strongly  onward  toward  its  completion  ;  but  its 
course  is  fretted  by  bars  of  human  weakness,  and  turmoiled  by 
rocks  of  human  passion,  and  even  when  flowing  most  freely,  its 
current  seldom  moves  long  in  the  same  direction,  but  bears  now 
to  one  side  and  now  to  the  other,  so  that  to  the  observer  who 
takes  into  his  view  only  a  brief  span  of  the  church's  progress,  it 
often  appears  that  its  current  is  reversed,  and  he  almost  doubts 
whether  it  can  be  the  same  stream  as  that  which  seemed  at  an 
earlier  stage  of  its  course  to  be  flowing  in  quite  another  direc- 
tion. 

This  change  of  emphasis  in  the  thought  of  the  church,  from 
one  age  to  another,  has  its  most  conspicuous  illustration  in  the 
field  of  Christian  doctrine.  The  Greek  fathers,  when  our 
religion  was  yet  a  recent  faith,  devoted  their  energies  to  the 
discussion  of  the  nature  and  divinity  of  our  Lord.  The  current 
ran  in  that  direction.     The  Latin  mind  seized  by  preference  on 


the  nature  of  man  as  its  theme  for  investigation,  and  so  force- 
fully was  the  current  bent  from  its  direction  in  the  earlier  discus- 
sion that  it  has  hardly  lost  the  impetus  to  this  day.  With  the 
Reformation,  the  burden  of  emphasis  again  shifted,  and  the 
prime  topics  of  men's  thought  became  the  problems  of  the  im- 
mediate relation  of  the  believing  soul  to  God,  and  the  extent 
and  seat  of  authority  in  matters  of  faith.  And  in  our  own  time 
these  questions  have,  in  their  turn,  sunk  into  the  background, 
and  other  problems,  involving  the  nature  of  inspiration  and  the 
composition  of  the  Scriptures,  have  taken  the  burden  of  atten- 
tion. These  mighty  shiftings  of  emphasis,  from  age  to  age,  are 
no  mere  shuttle-cock  play  of  chance,  beating  blindly  in  one 
direction  or  another.  They  are  parts  of  an  onflowing  cur- 
rent. None  of  them  but  have  their  place  in  its  progress. 
But  how  various  they  are,  and  in  how  diverse  directions  they 
seem  to  lead  ! 

This  fact  of  variety,  from  generation  to  generation,  in  the 
aspects  of  Christian  truth  which  most  closely  attract  men's  in- 
terest, so  conspicuously  illustrated  in  the  experience  of  the 
church  universal,  characterizes  also  the  story  of  Congrega- 
tionalism during  the  last  three  centuries.  If  we  examine  the 
history  of  the  body  of  which  we  are  members,  we  shall  find  that, 
while  it  has  continued  to  be  marked  by  the  same  general  traits, 
its  topics  of  interest  and  discussion  have  greatly  varied  ;  so 
that  its  life  up  to  the  present  time  falls  into  at  least  three  well- 
defined  periods,  distinguished  from  each  other  by  the  relative 
interest  shown  in  questions  of  polity  and  of  doctrine. 

The  first  and  longest  of  these  periods  extends  from  the  be- 
ginning of  modern  Congregationalism  to  the  Great  Awakening 
with  which  are  associated  the  names  of  Wliitefield  and  Edwards. 
\During  the  century  and  a  half  of  this  epoch,  the  thoughts  of 
Congregationalists  were  centered  primarily  upon  polity,  and 
doctrinal  differences  were  little  felt  and  little  debated.  That 
this  was  the  case  was  the  natural  consequence  of  the  circum 
stances  under  which  Congregationalism  arose.  That  system  of 
church  government  was  the  result  of  a  consistent  application  o: 
the  great  Reformation  principle  of  the  exclusive  authority  of  th< 
Word  of  God,  not  only  to.  doctrine,  but  to  polity  and  Christiar 
life)  The  early  reformers  of  the  first  rank,  Luther  and  Zwingli, 
recognized  the  desirability  of  modeling  their  systems  of  church 


government  upon  Apostolic  example,  and  seem  to  have  held  to 
a  form  approaching  Congregationalism  as  the  ideal.  But,  to 
their  thinking,  the  all-important  problem  was  that  of  doctrinal 
reformation,  the  rescue  of  the  Gospel  from  its  mediaeval  per- 
version ;  and  the  excesses  and  weaknesses  of  some  of  their  fol- 
lowers inclined  them  to  forego  the  application  of  the  same  test 
to  polity  as  to  doctrine,  and  to  substitute  a  would-be  temporary 
dependence  on  the  aid  of  civil  powers.  Calvin  was  far  more  an 
organizer  than  they,  and  was  much  better  able  to  bring  his 
system  of  church  government  to  the  test  of  the  Scriptures. 
But  even  Calvin  confessed,  on  one  occasion  at  least,  that  an  im- 
portant part  of  his  polity  was  adopted  primarily  to  meet  the 
exigencies  of  his  position.  The  fact  was  that  the  great  re- 
formers were  so  engrossed  in  the  doctrinal  struggle  that  polity 
entered  but  secondarily  into  their  thoughts.  Some  of  the 
bodies  to  which  the  Reformation  gave  rise,  notably  the  despised 
Anabaptists,  who  were  objects  of  persecution  on  the  part  of 
Catholic  and  Protestant  civil  authorities  alike,  tried  to  make  full 
application  of  the  Reformation  test  ;  but  the  leaders  in  that 
great  movement  stopped  far  short  of  any  such  trial  of  polity  by 
the  standard'  of  God's  Word  as  they  demanded  in  regard  to 
doctrine. 

But  by  the  last  quarter  of  the  sixteenth  century  the  battle 
for  purity  of  doctrine  had  been  largely  fought  to  an  issue. 
Europe  had  divided  between  the  supporters  of  the  Reformation 
and  its  opponents  on  much  the  same  lines  that  now  separate 
Protestants  from  Catholics,  and  men  were  able,  in  Protestant 
countries,  to  ask  whether  the  work  of  the  Reformation  had  been  as 
thorough  as  it  ought  to  be,  and  whether  the  test  of  conformity 
to  revelation  which  they  had  made  the  rule  of  doctrine  was  not 
also  applicable  to  polity.  In  proportion  as  it  was  felt  that 
the  doctrinal  battle  with  Rome  had  been  substantially  won,  men 
turned  to  examine  problems  of  church  government. 

Nowhere  was  this  examination  more  needed  than  in  Eng- 
land, for  in  no  country  of  Europe  did  the  Protestant  church  re- 
tain so  much  of  Roman  ceremonial  and  organization.  And 
therefore  in  no  Protestant  land  was  the  question  of  the  proper 
polity  of  the  church  so  earnestly  and  fruitfully  debated.  Two 
parties  in  England  tried  to  carry  the  Reformation  test  to  polity, 
the  one  larg-e  and   conservative,  the  other  small  and  radical. 


The  Puritans  would  have  the  ceremonies  and  constitution  of 
the  church  conformed  to  the  New  Testament  pattern,  but 
they  would  wait  for  the  hand  of  civil  authority,  moved  by  the 
slow  process  of  peaceful  agitation,  to  begin  the  change.  The 
Separatists  would  withdraw  at  once  from  the  English  Establish- 
ment, and  endeavor,  without  the  help  of  the  magistrate,  and 
without  waiting  until  the  entire  national  church  was  ripe  for  the 
change,  to  form  that  portion  of  Christian  England,  over  which 
their  influence  extended,  immediately  and  of  set  purpose  in  con- 
formity with  the  pattern  which  they  beHeved  they  saw  revealed 
in  the  Word  of  God. 

The  settlers  of  New  England  came  chiefly  from  the  Puritans, 
but,  thanks  to  the  example  of  Plymouth  and  the  practical  civil 
and  ecclesiastical  independence  of  the  colonies  from  restraint 
by  the  mother  country,  the  polity  they  adopted  was  that  of  the 
Separatists,  the  most  radical  and  determined  of  the  critics  of 
the  Church  of  England,  and  the  most  consistent  of  all  English 
parties  in  the  application  of  the  Reformation  test  to  church 
government.  Coming  from  such  sources,  and  representing  a 
tendency  which  was  a  logical  and  necessary  consequence  of  the 
Reformation,  it  is  no  wonder  that  the  interest  of  the  early  Con- 
gregationalists  of  New  England  in  church  polity  was  absorbing. 

The  early  New  England  Congregationalistsand  their  brethren 
who  remained  in  England  were  not  doctrinal  innovators.  In 
common  with  the  great  Puritan  party  at  home,  the  emigrants 
accepted  the  general  system  of  faith  which  Calvin  had  ex- 
pounded, which  was  reproduced  in  the  Articles  of  the  Church 
of  England,  and  which,  down  to  the  introduction  of  Arminian 
novelties  by  the  High  Church  partyv'n  the  reign  of  James  I.,  was 
the  practically  unquestioned  form  of  belief  of  the  Establish- 
ment. It  was  a  plain  appreciation  of  this  doctrinal  unity  that 
led  the  Congregational  exiles  at  Leyden  to  declare  to  King 
James  in  1617,  when  they  were  seeking  royal  permission  for 
their  proposed  settlement  in  America,  that  :'  — 

"To  y"  confession  of  fayth  published  in  y"  name  of  y«  Church  of  England  & 
to  every  artikell  theerof  wee  do  w""  y"  reformed  churches  wheer  we  live  &  also 
els  where  assent  wholy." 

And  the  same  unity  of  belief  was  strenuously  asserted  in 
1643-4  by  the  Congregationalists  in  the  Westminster  Assembly 


1  Seven  Articles y  Art.  i.  in  Coll.  N.  V.  Hist.  Soc,  Second  Series,  III:  i.  301. 


in  an  affirmation  to  Parliament  that  they  would  never  have 
ventured  to  urge  their  views  of  church  polity,  (to  quote  their 
own  words)  : ' 

"  If  in  all  matters  of  Doctrine,  we  were  not  as  OrtJiodoxe  in  our  judgements  as 
our  brethren  [the  Presbyterian  members  of  the  Assembly]  themselves.  .  .  But 
it  is  sufficiently  known  that  in  all  points  of  docti-ine  .  .  .  our  judgements  have  still 
concurred  with  the  greatest  part  of  our  brethren,  neither  do  we  know  wherein  we 
have  dissented." 

But  Presbyterians  in  those  days,  as  on  some  more  recent 
occasions,  were  inclined  to  cast  doubt  on  the  doctrinal  sound- 
ness of  their  Congregational  brethren  ;  and  therefore,  to  make 
their  agreement  in  belief  doubly  evident,  the  greatest  of  early 
New  England  Synods  —  that  at  Cambridge,  —  heartily  approved 
the  doctrinal  portions  of  the  just  published  Westminster  Con- 
fession, and  expressed  the  desire,  in  the  preface  which  they 
caused  to  be  prefixed  to  the  famous  Platform,  that : ' 

"  Now  by  this  our  professed  consent  &  free  concurrence  with  them  in  all  the 
doctrinalls  of  religion,  wee  hope,  it  may  appear  to  the  World,  that  as  wee  are  a  rem- 
nant of  the  people  of  the  same  nation  with  them  :  so  wee  are  professors  of  the  same 
common  faith,  &  fellow-heyres  of  the  same  common  salvation.  Yea  moreover,  as 
this  our  profession  of  the  same  faith  with  them,  will  exempt  us  (even  in  their  judg- 
mets)  from  suspicion  of  heresy:  so  (wee  trust)  it  may  exempt  us  in  the  like  sort 
from  suspicion  of  schism  :  that  though  we  are  forced  to  dissent  from  them  in  mat- 
ters of  church-discipline:  Yet  our  dissent  is  not  taken  up  out  of  arrogancy  of 
spirit  in  our  selves." 

These  statements  of  representative  bodies  and  leaders  of 
early  Congregationalism  were  reaffirmed  by  the  second  and 
third  generation  on  New  England  soil,  for  the  preface  to  the 
Confession  adopted  by  the  Massachusetts  churches  in  1680,  a 
Confession  which  they  borrowed  almost  word  for  word  from  the 
Savoy  modification  of  the  Westminster  declaration,  asserted :  ^ 

"  There  have  been  some  who  have  reflected  upon  these  Neiv  English  Churches 
for  our  defect  in  this  matter  [of  Confession  of  Faith],  as  if  our  Principles  were 
unknown ;  wheras  it  is  well  known,  that  as  to  matters  of  Doctrine  we  agree  with 
other  Reformed  churches :  Nor  was  it  that,  but  what  concerns  Worship  and  Dis- 
cipline, that  caused  our  Fathers  to  come  into  this  wilderness." 

Forty  years  later  these  words  of  Increase  Mather  were  re- 
peated by  his  son  Cotton  in  the  Ratio  Disciplince  in  the  affirma- 
tion :  * 


1  Apologeticall Narration,  London,  1643,  pp.  28,  29. 
"^  Cambridge  Platform,  ed.  1649,  p.  2. 

2  Preface  Conf .  1680,  p.  v.  ^  p.  5. 


9 

"There  is  no  need  of  Reporting  what  is  the  Faith  professed  by  the  Churches 
in  New  England ;  For  every  one  knows,  That  they  perfectly  adhere  to  the  CoN" 
FESSION  OF  Faith,  published  by  the  Assembly  of  Divines  at  Westminster,  and 
afterwards  renewed  by  the  Synod  at  the  Savoy :  And  received  by  the  Renowned 
Kirk  of  Scotland.  The  Doctrinal  Articles  of  the  Church  of  Evglaiid,  also,  are 
more  universally  held  and  preached  in  the  Churches  of  A'ew  England,  than  in  any 
Nation ;  and  far  more  than  in  our  own  [England].  I  cannot  learn,  That  among 
all  the  Pastors  of  Two  Hundred  Churches,  there  is  one  Arminian :  much  less  an 
Arian,  or  a  Getitilist.  .  .  .  It  is  well  kno^vn,  that  the  Points  peculiar  to  the 
Churches  of  New  England,  are  those  of  their  Church  Discipline." 

There  were,  indeed,  a  few  ripples  to  break  the  absolute 
tranquillity  of  this  early  doctrinal  calm.  The  first  of  New 
England  Synods  met  in  1637,  when  the  Massachusetts  churches 
were  not  a  decade  old,  to  consider  the  so-called  "  Antinomian  " 
views  which  Mrs.  Hutchinson  and  her  husband's  brother-in- 
law,  Rev.  John  Wheelwright,  had  advanced  to  the  distraction  of 
the  Boston  church.  But  their  theories,  which  much  resemble 
those  of  modern  Perfectionists,  quickly  passed  away.  The 
discussion  left  no  permanent  traces  behind  and  did  not  affect 
the  colonies  as  a  whole. 

Thirteen  years  later,  William  Pynchon,  the  founder  of  Spring- 
field, Mass.,  and  one  of  the  few  laymen  to  contribute  to  theo- 
logic  literature  during  the  colonial  period  of  New  England,  set 
forth  a  theory  of  the  atonement  at  variance  with  the  Anselmic 
view  then  prevalent  in  all  Puritan  thinking.  His  book,  the 
Meritorious  Price  of  our  Redemption,  anticipated  in  large 
measure  the  conception  of  Christ's  work  which  the  younger 
Jonathan  Edwards  was  so  successfully  to  advocate,  a  century 
and  a  half  later,  that  it  has  become  known  as  the  "  New 
England  theory."  But  New  England  was  not  ripe  for  such 
speculations  in  1650.  The  Massachusetts  iTegislature  ordered 
Pynchon's  book  to  be  burned,  and  appointed  Rev.  John  Norton 
of  Ipswich  to  make  reply.  Pynchon  was  not  convinced,  but  he 
founded  no  new  school  of  thinking,  and  his  publication  led  to 
no  more  permanent  result  than  the  Hutchinsonian  dispute  had 
done. 

More  generally  disturbing  to  the  doctrinal  peace  of  New 
England  in  this  early  period  was  the  incoming  of  the  Quakers 
and  the  Baptists.  But  the  Congregationalists  seem  to  have 
regarded  the  Quakers  as  subjects  for  police  restrain  rather  than 
theologic  argument  ;  and  the  Baptists,  without  becoming 
objects  of  general  controversy,  secured  a  fair  degree  of  tolera- 


lO 

tion  by  the  close  of  the  first  decade  of  the  eighteenth  century. 
Yet  neither  Quakers  nor  Baptists  succeeded  in  arousing  any 
special  interest  in  doctrinal  discussion,  and  to  the  end  of  the 
period  of  New  England  story  with  which  we  have  now  to  do, 
both  bodies  remained  small  and  uninfluential. 

The  comparative  fertility  of  the  early  New  England  mind  in 
the  realms  of  doctrine  and  of  polity  is  well  illustrated  in  the 
Synods  or  Councils  of  the  seventeenth  century,  and  the  dis- 
cussions out  of  which  they  grew  and  which  flowed  from  them. 
The  first  New  England  Synod  was  called,  as  we  have  seen,  to 
settle  a  doctrinal  dispute.  But  the  next  general  meeting  of 
ministers,  that  at  Cambridge  in  1643,  was  occasioned  by  the 
advocacy  of  Presbyterian  views  at  Newbury.  In  1646  the 
Cambridge  Synod  met,  and  the  result  of  its  work,  continued  in 
1647,  and  1648,  was  the  Cambridge  Platform,  the  most  elaborate 
and  carefully  wrought  out  statement  of  Congregational  polity 
which  the  seventeenth  century  produced.  It  was  the  product 
of  a  comparison  of  three  carefully  drawn  tentative  platforms, 
and  was,  in  parts  at  least,  strenuously  debated.  But  there  is 
no  evidence  that  the  Westminster  Confession,  which  the  Cam- 
bridge Synod  approved  as  a  fair  statement  of  the  doctrinal 
beliefs  of  the  New  England  churches,  evoked  any  general  dis- 
cussion.' 

After  the  Cambridge  Synod,  the  next  events  of  importance 
in  New  England  ecclesiastical  history  were  the  meeting  of  the 
ministerial  representatives  of  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut 
at  Boston  in  1657,  and  the  Synod  of  Massachusetts  churches  at 
the  same  place  in  1662,  to  consider  the  so-called  half-way  cove- 
nant question.  ISTo  problem  in  early  New  England  history 
compares  with  this  in  keenness  of  debate,  in  voluminousness  of 
printed  discussion,  or  in  permanency  of  interest.  Divis- 
ion appeared  in  the  Synod  itself,  and  the  controversies  that 
ensued  racked  all  the  New  England  colonies  and  divided  eccle- 
siastical practice.  Yet  the  question  was  primarily  one  of  church 
polity.  It  was  not  a  theory  of  the  nature  or  work  of  Christ,  or 
an  explanation  of  the  way  of  salvation,  or  even  a  new  view  of 
the  functions  of  the  church  ;  it  was  a  practical  question  of  the 
extent  of  church  covenant,  and  of  the  relations  of  those  in 
church  covenant  to  the  ordinances  and  discipline  of  the  church. 

'  Some  queries  were  raised  concerning  "the  doctrine  of  vocation,"  but  that  was  all.  See  Cam- 
bridge Flat/orm,  ed.  1649,  p.  2. 


Seventeen  years  later  than  this  half-way  covenant  Synod, 
a  new  assembly  of  Massachusetts  churches  was  convened  to 
deplore  the  evils  of  the  time  and  to  devise  a  remedy.  This 
Reforming  Synod  of  1679  prepared  an  elaborate  exhortation  to 
the  churches,  the  composition  and  approval  of  which  took  up 
the  greater  part  of  the  session  of  ten  days.  Such  portion  of 
the  Synod's  time  as  was  not  employed  in  this  work  was  de- 
voted to  an  assertion  that  the  proper  material  of  a  council  con- 
sisted of  representatives  of  the  brethren  of  the  churches  as  well 
as  of  ministers.  But  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  this  Synod 
felt  the  desirability  of  a  confession  of  faith  sufficiently  to  ap- 
point a  committee  on  the  subject  as  the  concluding  business  act 
of  its  session,  and  to  designate  atime  in  the  spring  of  1680  when 
the  Synod  itself  should  reassemble  and  consider  the  result  of 
its  committee's  work.  Here,  then,  was  a  matter  of  importance 
enough,  one  would  suppose,  to  keep  all  New  England  in  a 
ferment  of  expectation.  But  far  from  it,  when  the  Synod  met 
Increase  Mather  was  chosen  its  moderator,  and  his  son  records 
that  : 

"He  was  then  111,  under  the  Approaches  &  Beginnings  of  a  Fever ;  but  so 
Intense  was  he  on  the  Business  to  be  done,  that  in  Two  Days  they  dispatch'd  it." 

Increase  Mather  himself  tells  us  how  this  hasty  piece  of 
work  was  performed  : ' 

"  This    Synod consulted   and   considered  of  a  Confession   of 

Faith,  That  which  was  consented  unto  by  the  Elders  and  Messengers  of  the  Con- 
gregational Churches  in  England,  who  met  at  the  Savoy  ....  was  twice 
publickly  read,  examined  and  approved  of." 

Twice  to  read  through  the  Savoy  Confession,  which  is 
simply  a  revision  of  that  of  Westminster,  was  task  enough  for 
two  days.  One  slight  emendation  was  made  by  the  Synod  in  a 
point  primarily  of  church  polity,  but  the  whole  of  those  minute 
and  elaborate  doctrinal  expositions,  the  revision  of  the  least  one 
of  which  now  causes  our  Presbyterian  friends  such  laborious 
days,  were  accepted  as  the  creed  of  the  Massachusetts  churches 
on  two  hasty  readings. 

The  final  Synod  of  early  New  England  history  was  that  at 
Saybrook  in  1708.  Its  purpose  was  distinctly  one  having  to  do 
with  church  polity,  for  the  Legislature  of  Connecticut,  which 

•  Parentator,  p.  87. 

*  Prefaqe  to  Conf.,  16S0,  pp.  v,  vi. 


12 

called  it,  affirmed  that  its  object  was  to  "  consider  and  agree 
upon  those  methods  and  rules  for  the  management  of  ecclesias- 
tical discipline  which  .  .  .  shall  be  judged  agreeable  and 
conformable  to  the  word  of  God."  '  The  elaborateness  of  the 
preparation  for  its  sessions  by  preliminary  meetings  in  each 
county  for  the  preparation  of  drafts  of  church  polity,  as  well 
as  the  after-discussions,  show  that  the  only  interest  of  import- 
ance at  Saybrook  was  that  of  church-government.  Like  the 
Synod  of  1680  in  Massachusetts,  the  Saybrook  Synod  approved 
the  Savoy  Confession  as  a  doctrinal  standard.  But  there  is  no 
evidence  that  this  Confession  caused  more  discussion  than  in  the 
Massachusetts  body,  and  in  also  approving  the  Heads  of  Agree- 
ment the  Saybrook  Synod  accepted  a  declaration  of  the  equal 
sufficiency  of  the  doctrinal  parts  of  the  Articles  of  the  Church 
of  England,  the  Westminster  Confession,  or  Catechisms,  and 
the  Savoy  Declaration. 

Certainly,  it  is  clear,  in  view  of  these  facts,  that  the  weight 
of  emphasis  in  the  thinking  of  early  New  England  was  on  polity, 
rather  than  on  doctrine. 

II.  The  rehgious  movement  of  the  fifth  decade  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century,  known  as  the  "Great  Awakening,"  ushered  in  a 
new  epoch  in  New  England  thinking, —  an  epoch  in  which  doc- 
trine rather  than  polity  was  chief.  Though  brief  in  duration,  this 
revival  movement  was  marked  by  greater  intensity  of  feeling  than 
any  similar  outpouring  of  the  divine  Spirit  that  New  England 
has  ever  seen.  The  half  century  which  preceded  the  Awaken- 
ing had  been  a  time  of  rehgious  barrenness  ;  the  type  of  piety 
had  been  formal,  unemotional,  largely  dependent  upon  external 
means  of  grace.  Two  generations  of  men  had  taken  their 
places  in  active  life,  scarcely  any  of  whom  had  witnessed  a 
revival  season  ;  even  the  ministers,  faithful  and  painstaking  as 
they  were  as  a  class,  hardly  understood  at  first  the  signs  of  the 
,  spiritual  quickening,  so  unknown  to  them  was  the  experience  of 
a  general  religious  interest  in  the  community.  This  compara- 
tive spiritual  lethargy  of  New  England  was  suddenly  ended.  A 
premonitory  impulse  at  Northampton  in  1735  and  1736  was  fol- 
lowed by  a  general  movement  from  1740  to  1742,  in  which, 
under  the  preaching  of  Whitefield,  Edwards,  the  Tennents, 
Parsons  and  other  evangelists  and  pastors,  perhaps  one  tenth  of 


i^Jpnn.  Rec.,  v:  51.     Strictly  speaking,  this  is  said  of  the  preliminary  county  meetings. 


13 

the  population  of  New  England  was  added  to  the  number  of 
professed  disciples  of  Christ.  To  parallel  such  a  movement  at 
the  present  time  the  New  England  churches  would  need  to 
receive  nearly  half  a  million  additions  in  the  course  of  two  or 
three  years. 

Such  a  revival  was  a  momentous  fact,  and  though  its  in- 
gatherings into  the  churches  ceased  almost  as  abruptly  as  they 
had  begun  and  the  permanent  spiritual  fruits  were  far  less  than 
might  have  been  expected,  it  was  productive  of  important  con- 
sequences. One  consequence  was  the  new  impulse  which  it 
gave  to  doctrinal  investigation,  especially  through  the  leader- 
ship of  the  man  whom  the  revivals  made  the  most  prominent 
of  New  England  ministers,  Jonathan  Edwards.  The  Great 
Awakening  first  divided  New  England  religious  thinking  into 
schools.  There  had  been  discussions  before,  centering  about 
questions  more  of  polity  than  of  doctrine,  and  of  which  that  re- 
garding the  half-way  covenant  had  been  chief.  But  these 
debates,  while  productive  of  division  here  and  there,  did  not 
affect  the  general  unity  of  view  in  regard  to  the  main  doc- 
trines of  Christianity  and  the  method  of  bringing  men  into  the 
Kingdom  of  God.  When,  however,  the  revival  movement  had 
made  itself  felt,  the  attitude  of  good  men  toward  it  was  various. 
Some  heartily  supported  the  new  methods  of  Christian  work, 
approved  the  dramatic  exhortations  of  the  more  prominent 
evangelists,  and  insisted  on  a  conscious  experience  of  a  change 
in  a  man's  relations  to  God  as  the  only  proof  that  a  man  was 
truly  a  Christian.  Others  felt  that  the  impulse  that  controlled 
the  meetings  was  an  evanescent  enthusiasm,  rather  than  an 
abiding  force,  and  doubted  whether  the  results  of  the  labors  of 
the  itinerant  preachers  were  as  permanent  as  those  of  the  regu- 
lar ministry  ;  while  they  held  also,  that  the  surest  way  to  be- 
come a  Christian  was  to  employ  the  ordinary  means  of  grace 
with  diligence,  rather  than  look  for  a  sudden  change  in  feeling. 
The  party  of  the  revival  was  nicknamed  the  "  New  Lights,"  its 
opponents  the  "  Old  Lights,"  and  between  them  New  England 
divided  into  conservative  and  progressive  schools.  Each  party 
had  its  full  share  of  men  of  worth,  and  each  had  its  dangers. 
If  the  Old  Lights  were  composed  of  many  men  and  churches  of 
real  piety  and  sobriety  of  judgment,  there  naturally  attached 
themselves  to  this  party,  also,  those  who  made  little  of  the 
divine  element  in  conversion,  and  exalted  the  ethical  at  the  ex- 


14 

pense  of  the  spiritual.  Hence  it  was  that,  though  the  sound- 
ness of  the  Old  Light  party  as  a  whole  is  unquestionable,  it 
contained  many  churches  that  later  developed  Unitarian 
principles.  On  the  other  hand,  if  the  New  Lights  were  aggres- 
sive and  spiritually  wide-awake,  some  of  their  leaders  and 
churches  fell  into  actual  fanaticism,  and  some  from  this  party 
passed  over  to  the  Baptists  or  swelled  the  ranks  of  the  other 
sects  which  have  shared  in  our  Congregational  heritage. 

These  shaqD  divisions  in  regard  to  the  revival  movement  led 
to  disci^ssion  of  the  principles  which   underlie  all  efforts  for 

^'  human  salvation ;  thought  was  turned,  as  it  had  not  been  di- 
rected for  a  century  before  in  New  England,  to  questions  of  the 
ability  of  man  to  share  in  the  work  of  conversion,  and  to  the 
nature  and  source  of  that  state  of  sin  which  separates  man 
from  God.  And  the  leader  in  these  discussions,  the  father  of 
modern  New  England  theology,  was  the  most  prominent  of  the 
New  Light  school.  No  wonder  that  the  views  of  Edwards 
in  regard  to  ability,  conversion,  and  divine  sovereignty,  com- 
ing to  men  profoundly  stirred  by  the  Great  Awakening, 
aroused  response  and  raised  up  disciples.  They  became  the 
views  of  the  New  Light  party.  They  seemed  a  new  presenta- 
tion of  the  old  Calvinism,  adapted  to  meet  current  thought  and 
actively  evangelical.  Doctrine,  for  the  first  time  in  the  history 
of  New  England,  became  the  great  topic  of  ministerial  discus- 
sion ;  and  this  new  emphasis  in  the  thought  of  the  land  con- 
tinued far  into  the  present  century.  The  spiritual  offspring  of 
Edwards,  Bellamy,  Hopkins,  the  younger  Edwards,  Emmons, 
and  their  associates,  carried  on  his  work,  modified  and  de- 
veloped the  features  of  his  theology,  and  created  a  true  native 
divinity,  a  view  of  Christian  doctrine  not  simply  borrowed  from 
the  older  reformers,  but  peculiar  in  some  points  to  the  country 
of  its  birth.  New  conceptions  of  the  atonement,  of  divine 
sovereignty,  of  human  ability,  or  at  least  conceptions  hitherto 
almost  unknown  in  New  England,  were  presented  and  widely 
accepted.  Nor  was  this  new  interest  in  Christian  doctrine  pro- 
ductive of  development  exclusively  in  evangelical  channels.     A 

f  criticism,  rising  to  a  positive  denial,  of  many  of  the  features  of 
Calvinism  became  not  uncommon.  This  negative  attitude  of 
mind,  generally  called  Arminianism,  but  differing  widely  from 
the    positive   and    revivalistic    Arminianism    of    the    Wesleys, 


15 

questioned  the  extent  of  human  depravity,  doubted  the  absolutely 
authoritative  character  of  the  Word  of  God,  and  laid  stress  on 
morality  as  the  essence  rather  than  the  fruit  of  a  Christian  life. 
As  the  last  century  turned  into  the  present,  this  Arminian 
tendency  advanced  into  full  Unitarianism,  and  a  rupture  on 
doctrinal  grounds  tore  the  Congregational  body  into  two  un- 
equal sections. 

This  doctrinal  ferment  turned  men's  thoughts  completely 
away  from  polity.  The  old  purpose,  to  establish  a  church  on 
the  Scripture  model,  which  had  brought  the  early  Congrega- 
tionalists  to  New  England,  and  which,  even  if  much  diminished 
from  its  original  intensity,  had  dominated  Congregational  think- 
ing down  to  the  Great  Awakening,  had  now  fully  passed 
away.  Likeness  in  doctrine  now  seemed^a  closer  bond  of  union 
than  similarity  in  church  government.  The  Calvinistic  section 
of  the  Congregational  churches  soon  felt  itself  more  in  sym- 
pathy with  the  Presbyterians  of  the  Middle  States  than  with 
those  of  their  own  polity  and  lineage  whose  sympathies  were 
anti-Calvinistic.  Ministers  passing  from  regions  where  Con- 
gregationalism was  prevalent  to  sections  permeated  by  Presby- 
terianism  changed  their  church  affiliations  as  readily  as  they 
changed  their  residences,  and  Presbyterians  coming  to  New 
England  were  as  cordially  received.  The  descendants  of  those 
who  had  crossed  the  ocean  to  establish  what  they  believed  to 
be  the  only  polity  authorized  by  the  Word  of  God  now  seemed 
to  believe  that  polity  was  a  matter  of  geography  rather  than 
principle,  —  that  a  church  westward  of  the  Hudson  ought  to  be 
Presbyterian  as  surely  as  one  east  of  that  dividing  stream  should 
be  Congregational.  This  breakdown  of  distinctions  in  church 
government  which  the  fathers  had  held  of  importance  had 
many  curious  illustrations.  It  affected  all  the  New  England 
State^,  but  most  of  all  Connecticut,  which  by  reason  of  its  Say- 
brook  system  of  church  order  and  its  geographical  proximity 
to  the  Middle  States  was'  sometimes  disposed  to  think  itself 
neither  Congregational  nor  wholly  Presbyterian,  but  a  third 
something  better  than  either.  From  1792  onward  till  the  rup- 
ture between  the  Old  and  New  Schools  in  the  Presbyterian  body, 
representatives  of  the  Connecticut  churches  sat  regularly  in  the 
Presbyterian  General  Assembly,  and  Presbyterian  delegates  had 
a  part  in  the  General  Association  of  Connecticut.     From  1794 


i6 

these  representatives  had  full  power  to  vote  in  the  meetings  to 
which  they  were  sent.  This  emphasis  placed  on  doctrinal  like- 
ness, and  the  breaking  down  of  lines  drawn  on  the  basis  of  the 
polity  of  which  these  churches  were  the  historic  representa- 
tives, led  the  Hartford  North  Association,  for  instance,  at  a  well 
attended  meeting  in  February,  1799,  to  vote'  :  — 

"  This  Association  gives  information  to  all  whom  it  may  concern,  that  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  Churches  in  the  State  of  Connecticut,  founded  on  the  common 
usage,  and  the  confession  of  faith,  heads  of  agreement,  and  articles  of  church  dis- 
cipline, adopted  at  the  earliest  period  of  the  Settlement  of  this  State,  is  not  Con- 
gregational, but  contains  the  essentials  of  the  church  of  Scotland,  or  Presbyterian 
Church  in  America.  .  .  .  The  Churches,  therefore,  of  Connecticut  at  large  and 
in  our  districts  in  particular,  are  not  now  and  never  were  from  the  earliest  period 
of  our  settlement,  Congregational  Churches,  according  to  the  ideas  and  forms  of 
Church  order  contained  in  the  book  of  discipline  called  the  Cambridge  Platform." 

Here,  then,  was  a  body  of  representative  ministers  so 
oblivious  to  their  own  historic  origin  as  to  deny  that  there  had 
ever  existed  in  Connecticut  the  form  of  polity  for  the  establish- 
ment of  which  New  England  had  been  settled,  and  of  which  the 
leaders  in  the  occupation  of  Connecticut  had  been  prominent 
expounders.  But  this  blindness  to  the  facts  of  history,  —  a 
blindness  due  primarily  to  indifference  to  polity,  —  was  not  con- 
fined to  the  Hartford  Association.  No  less  representative  a 
body  than  the  General  Association  of  Connecticut  appointed  a 
committee'at  its  meeting  in  1805  to  "pubUsh  a  new  and  elegant 
edition  of  the  ecclesiastical  constitution  of  the  Presbyterian 
church  in  Connecticut,"  —  meaning  thereby  the  Saybrook  Plat- 
form, —  a  document  which,  however  much  it  may  depart  from 
the  early  views  of  Browne  or  Barrowe,  or  even  Cotton,  and 
Hooker,  and  the  Mathers,  is  far  more  Congregational  than  Pres- 
byterian. 

But  had  this  lack  of  interest  in  the  distinctive  features  of 
Congregationalism  been  confined  to  such  expressions  as  I  have 
quoted,  little  harm  would  have  resulted.  Unfortunately,  they 
were  a  sign  of  a  widespread  feeling  that  distinctions  in  polity, 
at  least  between  Congregationalists  and  Presbyterians,  were 
matters  of  indifference,  to  be  adjusted  by  convenience  and 
locality.  New  England  theologians  drew  lio  sharp  distinctions 
in  their  instruction  in  polity ;  ministers  rarely  preached  on 
the  subject  from  their  pulpits.     And   the  natural  willingness 


See  Walker,  Hist.  First  Church  in  Hartford,  Hartford,  18S4,  p.  358. 


of  men  to  co<)peratc  where  they  feel  the  distinctions  to  be 
unimportant  led,  in  iSoi,  to  the  formation  of  the  "Plan  of 
Union  "  for  the  joint  conduct  of  Home  Missionary  enterprises 
in  what  were  then  the  new  states  and  territories  of  the  West, 
but  which  now  constitute  the  center  of  our  population,  states 
like  New  York,  Ohio,  Michigan,  Indiana,  and  Illinois.  This 
"  Plan  of  Union,"  entered  into  by  the  Presbyterian  General 
Assembly  and  the  General  Association  of  Connecticut,  was  in- 
tended to  be  entirely  fair  to  both  sides.  But  in  actual  practice 
it  worked  to  the  detriment  of  the  Congregationalists,  because 
they  were  geographically  the  more  remote  from  the  new  settle- 
ments, and  especially  because  their  interest  in  polity  was  less 
than  that  of  the  Presbyterians.  The  result  was  damaging  in 
the  extreme.  Estimates  are  of  course  conjectural  in  large 
degree,  but  a  contemporary  observer  of  the  early  operation  of 
the  "Plan  of  Union"  declared  that  by  1828  it  had  given  over 
600  churches  to  Presbyterianism,  a  large  proportion  of  which 
were  Congregational  by  heritage,'  and  a  modern  student  has 
affirmed  as  a  result  of  careful  investigation  that,  during  its 
whole  operation,  it  "transformed  over  two  thousand  churches, 
which  were  in  origin  and  usages  Congregational,  into  Presby- 
terian churches."  "^  No  wonder  a  speaker  at  the  Albany  Con- 
vention of  1852  could  say:  "they  have  milked  our  Congre- 
gational cows,  but  have  made  nothing  but  Presbyterian  butter 
and  cheese.'" 

If  the  "Plan  of  Union"  was  the  most  disastrous  result  of 
the  lack  of  emphasis  on  polity  in  our  second  period  of  Congre- 
gational history,  it  was  by  no  means  the  only  illustration  of  the 
break-down  of  denominational  feeling.  The  American  Beard 
of  Commissioners  for  Foreign  Missions,  the  American  Home 
Missionary  Society,  and  the  American  College  and  Education 
Society  all  began  as  channels  for  the  united  work  of  Presby- 
terians and  Congregationalists,  and  the  meaningless  epithet 
"  American  "  in  the  titles  of  these  now  thoroughly  Congrega- 
tional organizations  is  a  legacy  of  the  time  when  men  had  not 
enough  interest  in  our  polity  to  give  to  it  institutions  of  its 
own. 

III.     But  happily  a  third  period  came  at  last.     The  swing  of 


'  Z.  Crocker,  Catastrophe  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  New  Haven,  1S38,  p.  144. 

^  A.  H.  Ross,  Union  Efforts,  p.  7. 

^  Heman  Humphrey,  Proceedings,  p.  70. 


1 8 

the  current  away  from  the  side  of  polity  gradually  ceased.  The 
beginning  of  this  new  epoch  is  not  so  easy  to  define  as  the 
commencement  of  the  era  which  we  have  just  considered.  No 
conspicuous  movement  among  the  churches,  like  the  Great 
Awakening,  ushered  it  in.  No  conspicuous  leader  like  Jonathan 
Edwards  developed  a  widespread  interest  in  new  lines  of  religious 
/thought.  Yet  slowly  the  Congregational  body  began  to  wake 
.at  last  to  some  sense  of  its  heritage  of  polity.  In  spite  of 
"  Plans  of  Union  "  and  general  suspicion  on  the  part  of  the 
churches  of  New  England,  some  men  planted  purely  Congrega- 
tional churches  at  the  West,  and  the  astonished  Cono^re^'ational- 
I  ism  of  the  East  at  last  perceived  that  these  churches  grew  and 
;  were  a  credit  to  our  denominational  name.  One  or  two  pastors 
in  prominent  New  England  pulpits,  like  Rev.  Dr.  Leonard 
Bacon  of  New  Haven;  and  later,  vigorous  men  beyond  her 
borders,  like  Rev.  Drs.  J.  P.  Thompson  of  New  York,  Samuel 
Wolcott  of  Ohio,  J.  M.  Sturtevant  and  W.  W.  Patton  of 
Illinois,  and  T.  M.  Post  at  St.  Louis,  saw  clearly  the  distinctive 
merits  of  our  own  polity,  felt  a  pride  in  its  maintenance,  and  urged 
its  historic,  scriptural,  and  practical  claims  for  acceptance 
wherever  their  influence  extended.  The  Presbyterians  too, 
who  had  heartily  joined  in  the  "  Plan  of  Union,"  but  who  had 
never  swung  so  far  away  from  interest  in  their  peculiar  polity  as 
Congregationalists  had  done,  aided  the  dawning  of  the  new 
denominational  self-consciousness  in  the  Congregational  body. 
Their  Old  School  faction  grew  suspicious  of  the  churches  formed 
under  the  "  Plan  of  Union,"  as  filled  with  doctrinal  novelties 
which  an  undiluted  Presbyterianism,  it  was  alleged,  might  have 
purged  out ;  and  at  the  meeting  of  the  General  Assembly  in  1837, 
which  caused  the  division  in  Presbyterian  ranks  between  the 
Old  and  New  Schools,  the  Old  School  party  fbrmally  repudiated 
the  "  Plan  of  Union,"  and,  as  far  as  they  could,  read  the  churches 
of  Presbyterian  affiliations  which  had  been  founded  under  it  out 
of  the  Presbyterian  fold.  Yet,  though  this  action  did  something 
to  awaken  Congregational  feeling,  it  was  received  by  most  of 
the  Congregational  churches  with  an  apathy  now  almost  incon- 
ceivable, but  perhaps  explainable  in  part  by  the  eagerness  of  the 
exiled  New  School  wing  of  the  Presbyterians  to  maintain  the 
old  relations  with  the  Congregationalists. 

As  a  result  of  all  these  influences,  the  direction  of  the  current 


19 

gradually  changed.  The  alteration  was  slow,  but  by  the  be- 
ginning of  the  decade  of  1840  to  1850  it  was  faintly  perceptible  y 
in  the  existence  of  a  young  Congregational  Association  in  New  ^ 
York,  formed  six  years  before  {1834),  and  the  successive  es- 
tablishment of  similar  associations  in  Iowa  in  1840,  Michigan  in 
1842,  and  Illinois  in  1844.  Yet  it  became  first  clearly  manifest, 
as  regards  the  denomination  as  a  whole,  on  the  assembling  of  the  . , 
Albany  Convention  of  1852.  This  body,  the  first  gathering  s/J 
representative  of  American  Congregationalism  in  its  entirety 
which  had  met  since  the  adjournment  of  the  Synod  that 
framed  the  Cambridge  Platform  in  1648,  assembled  in  response 
to  an  invitation,  sent  out  by  the  Association  of  New  York, 
asking  each  Congregational  church  in  the  United  States  to  be 
present  by  pastor  and  delegate.  Called  thus,  the  churches 
answered  willingly,  and  some  463  representatives  from  seven- 
teen States  gathered  in  the  sessions  of  the  Convention.  Its 
proceedings  were  understood  from  the  first  to  have  primary 
reference  to  the  furtherance  of  denominational  interests  in  the 
newer  parts  of  our  country.  In  accordance  with  this  mission, 
and  in  response  to  the  new  interest  in  Congregational  polity  of 
which  this  Convention  was  a  sign,  the  assembly  voted  its  disap- 
proval of  the  "  Plan  of  Union,"  urged  a  more  intimate  acquaint- 
ance and  a  warmer  fellowship  between  the  churches  of  the  East 
and  West,  and  called  for  ^50,000  (which  proved  nearly  $62,000 
when  the  response  came)  for  the  erection  of  church  edifices  in 
Ohio,  Michigan,  Wisconsin,  Iowa,  Illinois,  Missouri,  Indiana, 
and  Minnesota. 

From  the  Albany  Convention  to  the  present  time  the  story 
of  Congregationalism  has  been  one  of  ever  deepening  and 
broadening  consciousness  of  its  mission  and  of  its  right  to  be. 
Its  real  unity  has  more  and  more  demanded  tangible  expression. 
The  opportunities  afforded  by  the  close  of  the  Civil  War  led  to 
the  call  of  a  National  Council  which  came  together  at  Boston  in 
1865,  and  not  only  considered  the  exigencies  of  the  hour,  but 
put  forth  a  statement  of  faith,  an.d  a  resumd  of  our  polity. 
The  manifest  usefulness  of  such  an  assembly  and  the  favor 
with  which  it  was  received  by  the  churches  induced  them  to 
take  the  further  step  of  establishing,  in  1871,  the  Triennial 
National  Council.  This  body  has,  indeed,  met  with  slight  oppo- 
sition in  some  quarters  as  a  possible  menace  to  the  independ- 


ence  of  the  local  churches  ;  but  it  has  already  practically  out- 
lived criticism,  and  its  hold  upon  the  churches  has  strengthened 
with  each  recurring  session.  It  has  been  an  organ  for  the  dis- 
cussion of  plans  of  denominational  advancement,  it  has  secured 
the  preparation  of  a  widely  accepted  statement  of  faith,  composed 
in  the  language  of  living  men,  and  intended  to  present  a  consensus 
of  the  present  belief  of  our  churches  ;  it  has  brought  about  the 
representation  of  the  churches  in  some  of  our  once  independent 
benevolent  societies,  and  will  in  time  doubtless  make  all  of 
them,  as  they  should  be,  directly  responsible  to  the  churches 
whose  benevolences  they  administer.  All  this  implies  a  great 
and  healthful  increase  of  interest  in  the  polity  of  the  Congrega- 
tional body.  That  polity  is  no  longer  a  matter  of  indifference; 
it  is  a  real  bond  of  unity.  It  is  no  dead  system  thought  out 
and  crystallized  in  a  bygone  age.  Its  essential  features  are  in- 
deed the  same  as  at  the  beginning,  but  now,  as  in  the  seven- 
teenth century,  it  is  taking  on  new  forms  and  developing  new 
instrumentalities  adapting  it  to  the  changing  needs  of  men. 
The  National  Council,  the  representative  benevolent  societies, 
the  state  and  county  assotiations  and  conferences,  are  as  legiti- 
mate developments  of  Congregational  polity  as  the  self-govern- 
ing local  church. 

Yet  while  Congregationalists  have  returned  to  something  of 
their  ancient  appreciation  of  their  polity,  albeit  without  so  full 
an  assertion  of  its  exclusive  scriptural  authority  as  the  fathers 
were  wont  to  make,  or  so  confident  an  assurance  that  the  New 
Testament  writers  intended  to  lay  down  any  hard  and  fast 
system  for  all  ages,  they  have  not  turned  away  from  an  original 
and  independent  interest  in  Christian  doctrine.  The  stream, 
to  use  our  frequently  repeated  figure,  seems  now  to  be  running 
fairly  straight  towards  its  goal,  without  great  turning  to  the  one 
side  or  to  the  other.  It  is  interesting  to  observe  that  the  in- 
crease in  denominational  self-consciousness  in  the  Congrega- 
tional body  has  been  marked  by  two  attempts  to  restate  its 
doctrinal  position.  The  first  of  these  efforts  for  a  new  formula- 
tion of  its  faith  was  made  at  the  National  Council  of  1865,  and 
resulted  in  what  is  known,  by  reason  of  its  presentation  on  the 
historic  graveyard  hill-top  at  Plymouth,  as  the  Burial  Hill 
Declaration.  Excellent  as  this  document  is  as  a  memorial  of 
the  feeling  of  the  hour  and  place,  its  rhetorical  form,  its  gener- 


21 

ality  of  statement,  and  especially  its  local  coloring  and  ex- 
uberance of  diction,  have  rendered  it  of  little  service  as  the 
statement  of  faith  of  individual  churches.  These  limita- 
tions of  the  Burial  Hill  Declaration  were  apparent  to  the 
National  Council,  and  that  body,  therefore,  at  its  session  of 
1880,  took  measures  to  do  more  thoroughly  the  work  which  the 
Declaration  of  1865  was  designed  to  accomphsh.  A  commit- 
tee of  twenty-five,  as  widely  representative  as  possible,  in 
geography  and  in  theologic  sympathies,  was  selected  to  state 
the  churches'  faith.  Twenty-two  of  them  united  in  the  result, — 
usually  known  as  the  Commission  Creed  of  1883.  To  discuss 
the  merits  or  defects  of  that  Creed  is  not  our  purpose  here. 
No  Congregational  church  is  bound  to  accept  it,  though  a 
goodly  number  have  done  so.  It  comes  with  no  authority 
save  what  it  carries  in  itself.  But  it  was  adopted  with  probably 
as  great  a  degree  of  unanimity  as  would  be  attainable  in  any 
commission  similarly  representative  of  any  Protestant  body  in 
America;  and  it  has  given  to  our  Congregational  churches  what 
no  other  American  religious  community  of  prominence  possesses, 
—  a  modern  creed,  written  by  living  men,  and  stating  the  truths 
of  the  faith  which  we  profess  in  the  terms  of  current  speech. 
But  the  point  to  which  I  wish  to  direct  your  attention  is  that 
these  two  attempts  at  a  restatement  of  our  doctrinal  position 
show  that  in  the  revival  of  interest  in  our  polity  the  import- 
ance of  doctrine  has  not  been  overlooked.  They  witness  to  the 
living  interest  of  the  Congregational  body  in  the  truths  of  the 
Gospel  we  profess,  and  they  manifest  the  fact  also  that  in 
doctrine  as  in  polity  the  two  centuries  which  have  elapsed  since 
the  Synods  of  Cambridge  and  the  Savoy  have  been  centuries 
of  growth.  While  the  essential  features  of  the  Gospel  scheme 
are  the  same  that  the  older  confessions  exhibited,  the  more 
recent  statements  are  marked  by  a  wider  sympathy  and  a 
greater  simplicity. 

Our  review  of  some  of  the  features  of  Congregational  his- 
tory conveys  its  own  lesson.  It  has  shown  us  a  story  of  pro- 
gress, but  of  progress  accompanied  by  emphasis  first  on  one 
department  of  Christian  thought  and  then  on  another.  In  the 
early  period,  naturally,  perhaps  inevitably,  interest  in  polity 
drew  away  from  original  and  independent  thought  in  the  domain 
of  doctrine.     In  the  second  epoch  the  development  of  doctrine 


22 

was  more  marked  than  at  any  time  before  or  since  in  New- 
England  story,  but  it  was  at  the  expense  of  a  proper  regard  for 
our  system  of  church  government.  As  I  have  said,  in  the  ^ 
present  period,  which,  judging  by  the  length  of  the  others,  we 
have  only  just  begun,  the  balance  between  polity  and  doctrine  j 
has  thus  far  been  well  maintained.  The  stream  of  progress  in/ 
our  denomination  inclines  neither  to  one  bank  or  the  other.  Its! 
onward  course  comes  from  the  impulse  of  the  Divine  Spirit ;  Hei 
alone  can  direct  it  to  its  ultimate  goal.  But  it  is  within  the 
power  of  man  to  increase  or  diminish  its  deviations  to  the  onel 
hand  or  the  other.  It  is  our  duty  as  Congregational  Christians  1 
to  maintain  the  current  in  its  present  direction.  It  is  especially  | 
the  duty  of  a  Theological  Seminary  to  strive  to  this  end.  Doc- 
trine and  polity  should  be  held  in  equal  view:  not  doctrine 
without  polity,  as  has  been  too  frequently  the  case  with  us ;  not 
polity  without  much  stress  upon  doctrine,  as  is  the  practical 
usage  of  some  denominations  who  occupy  the  land  with  us ;  but 
doctrine  and  polity  side  by  side  as  themes  of  instruction,  each 
!  treated  as  important,  and  each  the  complement  of  the  other. 
It  should  be  the  aim  of  a  Congregational  Seminary  to  equip  the 
churches  with  ministers  well  grounded  in  the  truths  which  ap- 
pertain to  salvation.  It  should  be  its  aim  also  to  show  them 
that  Congregationalism  is  something  more  than  custom,  that  its 
principles  are  drawn  from  the  New  Testament,  and  its  practices 
are  more  accordant  than  those  of  any  other  polity  with  the 
genius  of  the  political  institutions  of  our  country;  that,  where 
intelligence  and  piety  are  present,  it  fosters  better  than  any  other 
system  of  church  government  the  development  of  a  full-rounded, 
self-reliant  Christian  character,  and  tends  to  make  its  adherents 
what  the  Gospel  intended  them  to  be,  free  men  in  Christ.  In 
so  far  as  a  Congregational  Seminary  does  this  two-fold  work  it 
will  be  true  to  the  lessons  of  the  history  of  the  body  to  which  it 
belongs,  and,  what  is  vastly  more  important,  true  also  to  the 
Master  whose  Gospel,  if  it  prescribes  no  form  of  church  govern- 
ment as  essential,  nevertheless  declares  principles  which  should 
be  the  touchstone  of  all  church  polity  as  certainly  as  His  words 
are  the  test  of  all  Christian  doctrine. 


•  •   • 

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•  •    • 


PHOTOMOUNT 

PAMPHLET  BINDER 

Manufactured  by 

GAYLORD  BROS.  Inc. 

Syracuse,  N.Y. 

Stockton,  Calif. 


Date  Due 


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